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Filmi (or Filmy), used as an adjective, is a colloquial term that refers to anything relating to the commercial Indian film industry. Filmi is Indian popular music as written and performed for Indian cinema. Music directors make up the main body of composers; the songs are performed by playback singers.
Filmi music tends to have appeal across India and overseas due to the constant inflow of music and the talent of the singers. Songs are often in different languages depending on the industry, for example in Hindi or Tamil. Playback singers are usually more noted for their ability to sing rather than their charisma as performers. Though these singers may release solo albums, their performances in film soundtracks tend to be more noticed due to the widespread appeal of movies.
At the "Filmi Melody: Song and Dance in Indian Cinema" archive presentation at UCLA, Filmi was praised as a generally more fitting term for the tradition than 'Bombay melody' "to suggest that the exuberant music and melodrama so closely identified with the Hindi commercial cinema produced in Bombay (Mumbai) are truly pan-Indian."[1]
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In the earliest years, filmi music was generally Indian (classical Carnatic, Hindustani, and village folk) in inspiration; over the years, Western elements have increased significantly.[citation needed] However, film soundtracks continue to be very diverse, sometimes fusing genres or reverting to entirely classical music. Examples of this can be found throughout the history of filmi music.
R. C. Boral, Pankaj Mullick, Anil Biswas and Naushad and S. Rajeswara Rao were noteworthy music directors of the 1940s. Rao, who scored the 1948 Tamil Chandralekha, the first all-India hit, continued composing and music directing until the 1980s. The 1950s and 1960s, included music composers like Shankar Jaikishan, S.D. Burman, O.P. Nayyar, Madan Mohan, C. Ramchandra, Roshan, Vasant Desai, Kalyanji Anandji and Khayyam in Hindi film music. K. V. Mahadevan, Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy, Laxmikant-Pyarelal and M. S. Viswanathan were active music directors for more than 35 years from the 1950s. As Indian cinema segued into the 1960s and 1970s, pop artists like R.D. Burman and duos like Nadeem-Shravan and Jatin-Lalit gave filmi a stronger western flavor with composers Ilaiyaraaja and Raveendran who rose to fame during the 1970s and 1980s in Tamil film music. Major musical forces in the 1990s and 2000s have included A. R. Rahman, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Vishal-Shekhar, Yuvan Shankar Raja and Harris Jayaraj.
Full article: Playback singer
A playback singer is a singer who pre-records songs for use in films. The singer records the song and the actors or actresses lip-sync the song in front of the cameras, a form of singing that is characteristic of the Indian subcontinent. The songs of a film, the quality of the music and its music director (composer), lyricist and singer have often determined the success of a film. Film soundtracks are sometimes released before the release of the film itself, resulting in a disparity between the soundtrack and the songs appearing in the film.
Well-known playback singers include the following:
Full article: Bollywood songs
In the 1950s and '60s, lyricists like Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri, Sahir Ludhianvi, Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, Frede, Rajinder Krishan, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Bharat Vyas, S[hakeel Badayuni, Qamar Jalalabadi, Jan Nissar Akhtar and S.H. Bihari wrote lyrics of many classic filmi songs. Lyrics tended towards the literary and drew heavily on contemporary Urdu and Hindi poetry. The south has seen poets like Kannadasan, Vairamuthu and Vaali rise to prominence, drawing on Tamil poetry and literature.
Binaca Geetmala, Ameen Sayani's popular Hindi language radio show before satellite television took over in India sometime in the 1990s, gave weekly popularity ratings of Bollywood Hindi film songs (akin to the Billboard Hot 100 list of songs). It ran in various incarnations from 1952 to 1993, and annual lists of the most popular songs were played at year-end. The list was compiled on the basis of record sales in India.[2] Currently, Hindi filmi songs are sold on tape and CD compilations, played as promos and in programs on various television channels and radio stations, with different popularity ratings claiming different songs as being on the top.
Because popular music directors score a great many films over the course of a year, accusations of plagiarizing abound. For example, one production number in Dil (1990) is based on Carl Perkins' Blue Suede Shoes, sung with Hindi lyrics. Of late the Indian film industry has been gaining visibility outside India, and the legal risks of plagiarism have been gaining importance. Some producers have actually paid for the musical rights to popular Western songs, as in Kal Ho Naa Ho's song, Pretty Woman. Plagiarism has also existed within India, with several music directors in Bombay cinema lifting tunes from other "regional" industries.
Filmi is also making converts and exerting influence beyond the usual Desi audiences. Western music stores carry Indian music compilations. Baz Luhrmann showcases the song "Chamma Chamma" from China Gate in his 2002 movie Moulin Rouge. Scores from Chennai Tamil films have appeared in productions such as Lord of War and The Accidental Husband. A. R. Rahman rose from fame in the Chennai film industry to become one of the most popular current music directors and has had a musical Bombay Dreams, playing in London and New York, and scored several projects outside India. Ilaiyaraaja won the Gold Remi Award for Best Music Score jointly with film composer M. S. Viswanathan at the WorldFest-Houston Film Festival for the Tamil film Vishwa Thulasi (2005).[3]
